2026 RB Formula 1 driver Arvid Lindblad dominates in Abu Dhabi to win his third race of the season, less than a second ahead of a charging Joshua Dürksen. Fellow Red Bull junior, Nikola Tsolov takes first FIA Formula 2 podium.
Lindblad kept his lead from reverse-grid pole position with a mighty start off the line, ahead of AIX Racing’s Dürksen.
Sebastián Montoya, starting sixth, stalled on the grid and was narrowly missed by both Invicta drivers who had to squeeze up to the wall to take avoiding action. This dropped the Colombian driver down towards the back of the pack but he managed to continue, making his way up the field with the help of some bold overtakes.
Rookie Martinius Stenshorne went for an adventure up in the inside of Turn 1 at the race start, he was met with a bollard on the apex which sent him airborne and to the back of the field.
Behind them, Tsolov had a great start putting his Campos up to third from fifth. The Bulgarian driver received a 3 place grid penalty for impeding in yesterday’s Qualifying session, which would have made it an all Red Bull academy front row,
The Virtual Safety Car was called on Lap 8 to recover John Bennett’s VAR which had suffered a big engine failure. He managed to find a handy escape road so the marshals could clear the car swiftly.
Once the VSC ended, Dürksen was hot on the heels of race leader, Lindblad, but ran very wide on the exit of the corner, losing him a significant amount of time to his rival.
Jak Crawford will be investigated after the race for forcing Gabriele Minì off the track in dramatic fashion. The pair were battling for P8 on the exit of Turn 9 until Minì’s Prema launched into the air from the kerb.
A few laps later, Crawford lost his front wing endplate in battle, this time, with Victor Martins. Subsequently, the VSC was briefly called by race control for the second time to allow a brave marshal to clear the debris. Crawford kept sixth place.
For the constructors’ championship: Invicta Racing failed to score with their two drivers in the Abu Dhabi Sprint Race. Hitech still stand 30 points behind with the leading team’s Roman Stanek on pole for tomorrow’s Feature Race.
Campos have closed their gap to Hitech with Lindblad’s lights to flag win and Tsolov’s first F2 podium earning them 15 points.
Image: Getty Images via Formula Motorsport Limited
